Do Nuns Have It Harder?

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It seems to me like nuns receive the short end of the stick.

Why are priests allowed to live in private homes, have more clothing options, are able to have pets, own cars and no vow of poverty required?

I’m not against them being able to do this, but why don’t nuns have the same option?

I’ve read articles and viewed documentaries where friars and brothers live and provided outreach to children. They even have areas where the underprivileged children are able to come and play. I recall some having pets. They seemed so joyful in comparison and less… stern or rigid.
 
Bix said:
It seems to me like nuns receive the short end of the stick.

Why are priests allowed to live in private homes, have more clothing options, are able to have pets, own cars and no vow of poverty required?

I’m not against them being able to do this, but why don’t nuns have the same option?

I’ve read articles and viewed documentaries where friars and brothers live and provided outreach to children. They even have areas where the underprivileged children are able to come and play. I recall some having pets. They seemed so joyful in comparison and less… stern or rigid.
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Diocesan priests, most of them anyway, do not live in a community with other religious, so they need the means to live in the world while not being a part of the world; hence why they are not asked to take a vow of poverty. From what I’m aware of Friars and Brothers work towards being priests within their community and are still required to take a vow of poverty. This is because most religious communities are self-sustaining (making coffe, jams, statues, etc; however, most if not all still depend a lot on donations.

As for your claim that nuns have it harder I would say it all depends on the convent. Some places are very laxed while others are very strict. The same goes for other monastic communities involving Friars and Brothers. Either way any nun or brother that complains that thier monastic life is too ascetical; I think needs to re-evaluate their outlook towards the vocation they have been called to. If the person is novice then maybe the should re-evaluate whether or not they even have a calling.
 
Bix said:
It seems to me like nuns receive the short end of the stick.

Why are priests allowed to live in private homes, have more clothing options, are able to have pets, own cars and no vow of poverty required?

I’m not against them being able to do this, but why don’t nuns have the same option?

I’ve read articles and viewed documentaries where friars and brothers live and provided outreach to children. They even have areas where the underprivileged children are able to come and play. I recall some having pets. They seemed so joyful in comparison and less… stern or rigid.
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Nuns have received a calling from God to live in community in consecrated life. If they were called to be in the world they would have been active sisters instead of cloistered nuns. If they were not called to live in community, they would not be either.

Here are some websites detailing the lives of cloistered nuns versus that of active/apostolic sisters.

nunsopsummit.org/
curia.op.org/en/index.php/eng/about-us/nuns

nashvilledominican.org/Home
curia.op.org/en/index.php/eng/about-us/sisters

There is no reason to think they are getting the short end of the stick. They have made their decisions based on a vocation from God that they responded to of their own free will. In short, this is the life they chose.
 
I’m assuming they’re all happy or else they wouldn’t be there. I apologize if what I posted came across wrong.

I was only wanting to know why there are differences in how they live.
 
Don’t put Nuns on the same level as priests. If you are going to try and compare you may consider Nuns - Monks or Religious Brothers.

Priests are consecrated to provide the Eucharist, Nuns are not.
 
I read something that stated the average of a nun was someone in her sixties. I’m not certain if it was a valid source, but it made me think (or wonder ) of how they live in comparison to other religious vocations.
 
Bix said:
I read something that stated the average of a nun was someone in her sixties. I’m not certain if it was a valid source, but it made me think (or wonder ) of how they live in comparison to other religious vocations.
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I sincerely doubt that was overall. It may have been for a specific community but there are steadily increasing numbers of young women choosing to enter religious life.
Bix said:
Why can’t they have pets?
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Some communities do have animals. A few months ago a friend of mine entered a Carmelite community that has a cat and I have heard of other communities that have dogs or cats.
 
“It seems to me like nuns receive the short end of the stick.”

My KC council recently helped an Abbey with a vocations day. One of my fellow knights went and told one of the sisters there we needed some help getting a small part of the parking lot cleared so we could setup for lunch. She made one polite request to the people that were at the event. Within 15-20 minutes the entire parking lot was cleared and stayed cleared the entire day; and no one complained [including the lady on crutches]. I was in the Army for nine years and never once did I see that type of automatic obedience.
 
First of all, it’s important that you make the distinction between kinds of priests - many do in fact take a vow of poverty, live in community, etc. Only “secular” (i.e. diocesan) priests are not required to. Many parishes are actually run by religious priests who take a vow of poverty and live in community - often a monastery attached to the church. And even where diocesan priests live is dictated by the parish or diocese where they live, to the best of my knowledge.

There are also some nuns I know of who live in apartments and have their own cars, etc (no matter what one may think of that, it is out there, is my point).

So, this is not a priests vs. nuns thing, but religious vs. secular priests thing. Priests are ordained but not necessarily consecrated to religious life, which is a different thing. They are attached to the Church and the bishop, while sisters become spouses of the Lord himself.
 
Leon_Bloy said:
There are also some nuns I know of who live in apartments and have their own cars, etc (no matter what one may think of that, it is out there, is my point).
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To be picky if they live in the world they are technically sisters, not nuns. And things like cars are often donations to the community and can be very useful to their apostolate.
 
Thank you for all the replies and information.

Bored and curious I did a search for the average age of a nun. The results were between 65 - 75. They did say some orders had an average age of 38, but overall the age was much higher.

Maybe they should come up with some new recruiting ideas like an order that lives and travels on a cruise ship. They would be able to enjoy seeing the sites of the world and have the ability to reach people all over the world. 🙂
 
Bix said:
Thank you for all the replies and information.

Bored and curious I did a search for the average age of a nun. The results were between 65 - 75. They did say some orders had an average age of 38, but overall the age was much higher.

Maybe they should come up with some new recruiting ideas like an order that lives and travels on a cruise ship. They would be able to enjoy seeing the sites of the world and have the ability to reach people all over the world. 🙂
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More and more young people are entering religious life, it’s become a very noticeable trend. Not because of gimmicks or fancy perks because they see that the things the world is offering are empty and are searching for something deeper. In religious life men and women sacrifice all for the service of God and His people. For apostolic religious that sometimes means getting to visit other countries and have exciting experiences like that, but that’s not the important thing: the important thing is that they are serving God as He wills for them to.

I’m part of another forum that has a lot of young discerners. It’s amazing to see, many from the community have entered religious life and we have several more entering this year. There is such a fervour for religious life, so many young people wanting to dedicate themselves to God.
 
I know of some Carmelites that have a dog and two cats.

I also know of some nuns who don’t take the vow of poverty. One lives separately in her own apartment and has a regular job, a car, fancy clothes and lots of makeup. Granted, she doesn’t look or act like a nun, but she’s still is one.
 
Nuns are not the female counterpart of priests. They are the female counterpart of monks. The rules of each are actually quite similar.

Priesthood is a unique calling that Jesus established first with his apostles and they have delegated that authority and role to bishops and later priests. There are lots of theories about why he only selected men as apostles, but in the end, theories matter less than the fact that he did so.

Most people today have never interacted with young nuns, so they assume all nuns are like the last two elderly nuns left teaching in the schools of their youth (tired, unappreciated, probably grumpy and discouraged that their orders were dying since few to zero Boomers joined it).

Religious orders (women and men) declined drastically since the 1960’s for various and complicated reasons that nobody entirely understands. But the basic cause is a combination of massive cultural changes in the West, lack of clear and firm leadership in the Church for the last 50 years and (not least) dramatically smaller family sizes which eliminated the vocation friendly environment in the homes of young people.

But if you look at the young, thriving women’s religous orders today (and there are a good number), they are NOT stern, stiff, autocratic meanies. Quite the opposite, they are women in love with their divine spouse, and it shows.
 
Bix said:
It seems to me like nuns receive the short end of the stick.

Why are priests allowed to live in private homes, have more clothing options, are able to have pets, own cars and no vow of poverty required?
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I don’t know of too many priests who actually live in private homes. Their homes tend to be rectories where, I’m sure if there wasn’t such a priest shortage, they’d be living with other priests. The FSSP live in community in an FSSP house, often in a neighbourhood, but not always. If they have their own parish which has a rectory attached, they live in the rectory.

The “more clothing options” thing is a sore spot for me. When I was a kid (which wasn’t very long ago) priests didn’t wear secular clothing. They wore clerics, black to be specific. Priests should be wearing their clerics unless there is a serious reason not to. I know the FSSP live in their cassocks, though, sometimes my priest doesn’t wear the white shirt with the fancy French cuffs, but another clerics shirt underneath that is less formal, but still clerical wear.

What’s wrong with priests owning their own vehicle? If it’s 3:00 am and you’re dying, wouldn’t you like your priest to have a vehicle to come to give you last rites asap rather than trying to bum a ride off someone or depend on public transit?

While priests aren’t taking vows of poverty, I don’t think we can say they’re living high off the hog. They’re living a modest lifestyle.
 
Deo_Gratias42 said:
What’s wrong with priests owning their own vehicle? If it’s 3:00 am and you’re dying, wouldn’t you like your priest to have a vehicle to come to give you last rites asap rather than trying to bum a ride off someone or depend on public transit?

While priests aren’t taking vows of poverty, I don’t think we can say they’re living high off the hog. They’re living a modest lifestyle.
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I didn’t say I had problem with priests having cars or anything else. I have no problem with this or anything they have. 🙂

A few years ago - I do recall seeing three or four nuns several times driving and going to Starbucks together. They seemed to be enjoying themselves! 🙂
 
The_Curt_Jester said:
I know of some Carmelites that have a dog and two cats.

I also know of some nuns who don’t take the vow of poverty. One lives separately in her own apartment and has a regular job, a car, fancy clothes and lots of makeup. Granted, she doesn’t look or act like a nun, but she’s still is one.
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That’s interesting. I’ve never heard of that.

I’m glad they’re able to have and care for God’s little four legged creatures too. 🙂
 
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